Tiff & Jared's adventures

Here comes the good weather! We had beautiful days of sunshine in Tongariro National Park, Great Lake Taupo and smelly-sulfur Rotorua.

Taupo

The day after our Taranaki hike, our legs were still pretty dead so we decided to put the brakes on Tongariro and visit Taupo instead. Taupo is reportedly the biggest lake in Australasia (apparently just Australia/Indonesia/New Zealand) – if you look at a map of the North Island, you can probably squint hard enough to see the lake in central North Island. The town was known for a bunch of adrenaline activities but we stuck with more low key things to do. First order of business was Huka Honey Hive. We could see bees working in their hive behind a glass enclosure, sample different types of honey and taste samples of mead. We learned a lot of interesting facts about the different classes of bees (yes, in addition to the queen bee, there’s also working bees, nursing bees and drone bees) with informative pictures posted below. We sampled a handful of honeys and my favorite was probably their lemon ginger version. We also got to sample three tastings of mead, an alcoholic drink made from literally water and honey that ferments. It was a little sweet for us! We did however split a double scoop of ice cream there before moving on to Huka Falls.

Supposedly, Huka Falls is the most photographed place in New Zealand. (I feel like every place in this country is the most photographed.) Rightly, it was super beautiful. However, the proximity from the car park to the falls attributed to the huuuuge crowds. We’ve definitely noticed the North Island has been more populated than the South Island. It could be because when we arrived in November, it wasn’t peak season yet but I think the North is more touristy in general. Still beautiful, but we kind of miss the solitude of the South.

Anyways, Huka Falls was beautiful! The power of the water is so strong that it’s used for a lot of hydropower in the area. The water was super blue and mesmerizing to watch. After snapping a few pics, we went back to our car to leave the crowds.

Across the street from Huka Falls was Craters of the Moon geothermal Park. The geothermal walkway wandered through a weird and steamy landscape featuring bubbling craters and steaming vents.

We read about a free thermal hot pool along the river and decided to try this next. The Spa Thermal Park carpark was about a five minute walk from the river, where the cool water mixed with the hot water coming out of the natural springs. It was a little crowded but hey it was free! We found the perfect mix of cold and hot and sat in the water for a while, relaxing our muscles. We left early afternoon and started the drive back to our campsite in Turangi as we needed to go to bed early in order to wake up for our Tongariro Crossing hike. We made a freeze-dried meal of butter chicken and canned soup (pretty tasty), packed sandwiches for the hike and went to bed.

Tongariro

Fast forward to the morning. We woke up around 7 in order to meet our shuttle at 8:15. Since Tongariro isn’t a loop hike, ie we started at one point and finished at another, we had to pay $25NZD each for a shuttle ride from the end point car park to the beginning car park so that when we finished the hike, we were at our car. When we got to the trailhead of the 19.4 kilometer hike, it was soooo crowded. Granted, this is considered New Zealand’s best day hike but still so many people. We started walking and the first three kilometers were very flat. We passed a bunch of geologically-significant igneous rocks and other special features.

The more we walked, the more the crowds started to thin out. A few kilometers into the hike, we came across Soda Springs waterfall and splashed some cool water to get us ready for the uphill battle we were about to start. The landscape started to change around us and transform into a barren, volcanic landscape with steam cracking out of some surfaces. The weather was perfect and we could see everything around us; soon, we got to our first crater. It looked as if we were walking on Mars. To make it even better, we saw Mount Ngauruhoe or Mount Doom, to the right of us. The ascent to the second crater required more maneuvering through loose volcanic gravel. We reached the top and saw the Red Crater where we could clearly see a lava duct through where the molten stream once traversed. placeholder://It was truly unlike any hike we’d done in the past. We kept climbing up until we reached the summit and had 360 views of our surroundings. Looking down, we saw the three Emerald Lakes. The color, so potent and turquoise, stood out so prominently from their volcanic surroundings. Before we could get to the lakes, we had to shimmy down a rather steep slope.

While not super dangerous, the gravel was loose and we really had to watch where we put our footing. It was exhilarating. Some people were basically running down the slope or falling on their butts, and we could finally let our breath out once we reached the lakes. placeholder://By now, rain had lightly started to drop so we snapped a few more dozen pictures before continuing on the trail. Up to this point was the highlight of the track. The rest of the trail, probably 10K or so, consisted of a never-ending descent, views of lake Taupo and mind numbing switchbacks. The entire hike took us about 8 hours and I got a blister on my foot as well as super worn out legs but it was so worth it. We would definitely recommend this hike to anyone that comes to the North Island. When we finally made it back to our car, we celebrated with a boysenberry cider before going back to the Spa Park hot springs to soak our fatigued muscles. We also gorged ourselves with a double chilli cheeseburger, southern fried chicken and fries from a local diner favorite in Taupo to celebrate our summit.

Rotorua

The best quote from our time in Rotorua:

Are people less likely to know when their eggs are spoiled?” – Jared

It’s accurate. Rotorua is a geothermal area meaning there’s a lot of sulfur in their air, meaning that the town kind of smells like a million rotten eggs.

Our first day in Rotorua was a slow one as our legs were still recovering. We ended up doing a walk in the Redwoods forest, filled with Californian trees. Our walk was only 30 minutes which was nice after our huge Tongariro Crossing. We also went to the Kuirau Park right in downtown, a thermal park with sulfur smells and steam spewing out of holes. We got to the hostel in time to make dinner.

The next day was a bit more active. We woke up in time to visit the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park, similar to Yellowstone in the States. We got there in time for the 10:15 geyser eruption. A little lame but every morning they put on a show for the tourists by adding non-toxic soap to the geyser in order to artificially erupt the geyser. The speaker told us there are four active geothermal/geyser areas in the world to include Yellowstone, Rotorua, Russia and Iceland. We’ve knocked out two so far! The geyser was honestly a little underwhelming due to the crowds of people. After watching the eruption, we went back into the main park and did the 2 hour loop around the park. Don’t get me wrong, geothermal pools and limestone formations are awesome but we were spoiled with Yellowstone and thought that was a bit more impressive. We did see some pretty colored pools including Devil’s Bath, a bright acidic green pool.

After walking around the park, we headed a kilometer down the street to the Mud Pools, a free geothermal attraction. We thought this was way cooler than the park! There were dozens of mud pools continuously spewing and plopping and gurgling mud deep from within the ground. Rather than butchering the explanation, I took some pictures to explain the technical science-y stuff going on here.

After standing a while trying to catch some mud, we moved on to the Hot and Cold Pools. Popular to locals, we learned of this place through our guidebook. A free hot spot, there’s a hot spring feeding into a cool spring making a perfect spot to cool off/warm up in the afternoon. It was super interesting – in one spot it was cold, and move two feet over, the water was super hot.

After getting some food to cook for dinner, we went back to our hostel (Funky Green Voyager) and got to know our roommates at the hostel. We ended up meeting a lady from France who had been teaching in Australia before coming to NZ for holiday. We also ended up learning a new card game from a pair of Aussie friends and stayed up until 1AM playing games!

We had a great time in the area. Moving north, we’re going to Waitomo for their world-famous glow worm caves. While we might not see fireworks for New Years, we’ll see millions of Glowworm a lighting up the cave ceilings!